June 25, 2008

Watch it go round before it goes down. Erase it. It was as bad as we can possibly play. Frankly, we were due for a terrible pitching performance. I just didn't expect it in the biggest game of the year. I don't want to hear about the ump's strike zone or Cerione's called strike three or pulling Nick earlier. We got whupped, bad. It was a total team effort. Just take it and move on.

Fresno sucked it up when their backs were against the wall and their pitchers were spent. Now it's our turn. A national title is on the line tonight at 7:00 PM.

Though I'm sure everyone's tired of '04 Red Sox references, remember that they lost Game 3 of the ALCS 19-8. And we all know what happened after that.

Georgia just needs to play smart tonight. Work the count as much as possible and run up those pitch counts, but for the love of God, if you have two strikes, don't look at even halfway-marginal pitches. There's no excuse for taking a called third strike tonight. None. You have a metal bat. Any contact is good contact.

On the other side, we need a strong performance from Moreau like nothing else in the world. He can start by getting the leadoff guy out. The fewer baserunners, the better. Mendonca can hit four home runs if he wants; we just have to make sure the bases are empty.

Hell, we've scored 17 runs in two games, including 10 last night. That oughta be enough. It's up to the pitchers to make sure it is.

If we hit our pitches we win, it's that simple. Our pitching kept us in the game in game won, heck the whole NCAA tournament. We have been able to hit and we can do this, we just need to have someone dominate them at the plate, which is easier said than done.

Still lovin' the Cinderella references, especially "Looks like Cinderella is going to be at the ball past midnight". Yeah, it was like watching any Ben Stiller movie...the same routine over and over again.

I drove down from Kansas City with my wife and 11 year old son. Needless to say, we had a great time until about the 4th inning. Talked to a bunch of other Georgia fans (we don't have a whole lot of them up here in Big 12 country), spents gobs of money on Georgia stuff, and actually had a great conversation with Nick Montgomery's father standing in the stadium concourse. You know, we hit just about as good as them, they just hit them at the right time. On another note, I thought our fielders were lethargic all night... just no hustle, no diving after some catachable balls, etc. I'm back at work this morning, so we'll have to watch the Dawgs win their National Championship on TV. They will do it. And, my guess is that it's a much lower scoring affair.

PWD is dead on. If we pitch like we did against Miami and Stanford then we win.

I also have to agree with Anon 10:01 comment on our fielding. The ball that dropped at Allen's feet last night was inexcusable. The outfielder has to call off the infielder in that situation.

Is it me or does listening to the commentators make anyone else think of the Sugar Bowl? They're obvious bias towards Fresno State is sickening.

On another note; what's the chances of the dawgs coming out tonight in black jerseys. I know they're the home team tonight and the the home teams have been in white but still, it'd be sweet if they did.

"The ball that dropped at Allen's feet last night was inexcusable. The outfielder has to call off the infielder in that situation."

As bad as Georgia played last night, that was the one play that hurt the most to me. It really was inexcusable. You learn how to handle that sort of thing back when you're still young enough to be hitting off a tee. But it does happen and hopefully Georgia will shake it off and be the better team tonight.

ESPN keeps saying Fresno is 5-0 in elimination games. By my count, isn't UGA 5-0, also. We lost to lipscomb in the first round, making all 4 (louisville, lipscomb, tech and tech) of the remaining games in the regionals elminimation games for the dawgs, the second against tech was a winner take all). Then we also beat NC State in the third game which was a winner take all elimination.

Perno surrendered when Dodson got shelled. He started putting in pitchers that haven't pitched in weeks. That's why FS kept scoring. I can't say it was a bad move, he was just trying to save some arms for tonight.

I'm not trying to criticize the kid at all. Hes definitely not the only one to have a mental lapse lately. It was just frustrating to see a sure out fall at his feet at such a crucial point. From the replay it looked like he may have misplayed it then he lackadaisically came up (probably assuming Beckham had it)and let it drop. He should have called Beckham off. That's what inexcusable to me.However I'll give the kid a break since he made that home run saving catch the other night.

BTW does anyone know of a radio station this is being aired on? I just found out I'm having to travel tonight and will miss most of the game.

Their bullpen... any live arms remaining? Seems like if we can get to The Cajun Cook, Justin Wilson, early and often we could be the team putting up a football score tonight.

Sprague and Hower each threw 3 innings last night and Sprague threw an inning Sat. and an inning Sun. I think those two are probably done.

Miller and Allison are also probably both done, but Miller, who pitched 6 against UNC Sun. may be available.

That leaves Bonesteele (3 on Mon), Breckley (2 on Mon), Tomlinson (1.1 Mon), Floethe (0.2 Mon) and Burke (2 on Sun and 1 on Mon). Other than Burke, those are all 6+ ERA guys - not that that seemed to matter much at times on Monday night. But, I still think that if we can get their starter off the hill, we can rough them up sufficiently to bring home the hardware. It may take double digit runs, but our Dawgs are plenty capable. Regional Final vs GT = 18-6; Super Regional Final vs NC State = 17-8. How about one more football score for our Dawgs tonight!

seems to me that any team left standing is of course undefeated in elimination games.

Doesn't that go without saying?

Perno surrendered when Dodson got shelled. He started putting in pitchers that haven't pitched in weeks. That's why FS kept scoring. I can't say it was a bad move, he was just trying to save some arms for tonight.

I have not see the Dogs play baseball but twice this season. I know nothing about them at all. It is refreshing to know that the guys I saw pitching last night haven't pitched in weeks. Most looked like it was the first time they had ever pitched in their lives.

960 am has it in Athens and north Georgia (almost to Atlanta) but their main announcer is almost as bad as Munson about getting down on the dawgs and how we can screw it up. Sometimes I really wonder which side he's on...

Post that picture of the toilet again. I've been getting sick all game long. Come on home boys, we won't forget this great run. Remember we were projected to finish last in the east, and you took the team to the CWS finals. We'll be back in 2010! Every other year it always seems to be.

Wow, I've never seen a team beat so badly by one guy before. Seriously, that was amazing. You had to feel good for those guys, though. And if you really analyze it, we played well. Certainly better than the score indicated. They were loose, we were tight, and in the end I think that was the difference.